World Cup Churches 24. Croatia

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

For this blog  I'm pleased to move from buildings to people of faith: Zagreb Baptist Church shares some of its testimonies online:

ZORAN: I was so dissatisfied with life that at one point I even thought about suicide. Yet I did not have the courage to do it. Thus began my search for the answers to questions about life that had plagued me. My friends and my environment didn't help me much because they mostly avoided those questions and told me that I was still young and that I shouldn't bother with all that. Dalibor the computer salesman]  gave me the New Testament and a few books which I started reading. I sought the truth with a truly open and sincere heart. And then everything suddenly opened up. It was enough for me to read the first few pages of the Gospel of John when my hair literally started to rise on my head and I suddenly realized who Jesus was and what he wanted from me.

STEPHANIE: After years of spiritual death, over a period of months, I began to think about the truth of what others were telling me about Jesus. Nothing happened abruptly - it was as if Jesus' gentle voice was slowly calling to his lost sheep. My spiritual skeleton slowly began to gain flesh and skin, and God then breathed His Spirit into me. My perspectives miraculously changed.  Now I understand that living with Christ means living with full lungs, that it is a life in which there is no emptiness because He is always there.  When I look back I see that I am truly born again, because the old me certainly couldn’t have imagined that I would be what I am and where I am now.  This is my greatest testimony - I was dead, but Christ brought me to life!

TAMARA: As I grew, I faced many things apart from the fact that my parents were separated. I have even attempted to commit suicide in the past as an attempt to punish my father for what he had done.  I was a very angry person and for everything I blamed my father and I blamed the woman he was with. 

Soon after I gave my life to Jesus, I was in Church one day and a preacher said “there is someone who is filled with hatred towards another person, God wants to set you free today”  I grew so angry at that very moment and I was offended by Jesus that He would even suggest such a ridiculous thing. As I struggled to let go of what happened to my mum, somehow I felt like my forgiving was letting my mum down, but He told me vengeance is His.  Then the Lord asked me to go to this woman’s house and I said to God “ I really hope I heard right because I don’t know what I’m doing here.” How do you walk up to someone's house and say “I forgive you" when they never apologised to you?  As she opened the door I felt something like a fire fill my body and my body just leapt forward, and I just hugged her. I remember as I turned and walked away that I had never felt joy like that in my life. For 14 years I had been imprisoned and that was my first moment of freedom. I felt like I was walking on air. I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing, I couldn’t imagine that I could be this free. I felt like I had not been living up until that moment. It’s 10 years later and I can tell you God has blessed me so much.

A soul-warming end to the football season

Nathan Jones, manager of Luton, talks about his faith.

A Christian's Story

What would you write if you knew you were about to die?  David Bowie recorded a song: a Christian friend of one of my friends wrote this on her IPad:

If this is being read in public domain that means I have passed from this life and entered into eternity- into the presence of the Almighty God- the maker of Heaven and of earth. WOW... Hold on- a human, a mortal can stand and not only stand but live in the presence of this Almighty Lord?! Yes. My life on earth has been leading up to this point- the point where I see His Glory! Where I meet my precious Saviour who died for me before I had been born and while I was still in my sin. The Lord, when he formed me in my mother's womb, knit together my body, chose my eye colour, my personality, gave me talents and knew ALL about me, even what would make me laugh (all unknown to my earthly parents)... He also knew my whole life, he knew each day I would be breathing oxygen in my lungs, he knew every decision I would make, including whether I would choose to follow Him or not.

[...] So what then comes after? Nothing? Do you really believe that because my organs have ceased to work- that the life in me, just died too?! We are more than just flesh, than an animal... We are different and higher than a mere animal because we were granted a soul. A Soul that will live on forever. The question is- where? I believe as this is read I am in the presence of God, and it is here I will spend eternity. No pain, no sickness, no hurt, no disappointment, fully satisfied with my creator, in full joy and fullness of life. So why can I say this with confidence before I have even departed?? [...]

Here is my story... I grew up hearing of Jesus, God and going to church, I knew it all, and I do believe I made a profession of faith as a child; however I don't think I knew enough about what I had actually decided. I am thankful for my parents who instilled in me godly morals, which kept me on many occasions from doing really silly things... That being said, when I turned 18- I wanted to break free from what I thought was an oppressive upbringing.. So I rebelled...[...]

I was literally running in the opposite way from God..but as I woke up on the Friday morning after little sleep, too much alcohol and partying... Before I felt hungover or tired I felt an overwhelming sense of emptiness. In his great mercy God came to me that morning and not audibly, but in my soul I heard him loving whisper 'what are you doing and where are you going?' . . .[...]

For those of you who know Jesus... I will see you on the other side. Please don't mourn for me... I am free from cancer, free from seizures and more fulfilled and happy than any moment I ever had on earth. As I write this I can't even imagine how amazing this will be, because I've had many, many wonderful times and experiences in my life! I am sure there will be days when you miss me...but please please, please don't let those moments take away from each precious moment that you have, don't let my passing cause you to stumble in your faith. Let it strengthen your faith that God IS real and HE has a purpose for you on this earth!! Enjoy each moment you have and try to keep an eternal perspective, how can you bring God more Glory?

For those of you who are suffering, I feel one of the purposes of my illness was to teach me about suffering. Firstly, no matter how bad, it will never compare to the suffering Jesus faced on the cross, being separated from that father connection, not to mention the physical suffering...because Jesus experienced that suffering He can identify with you as you struggle, so cling to Him. And Trust him no matter what. He is in control despite our lack of understanding.... Be patient, one day when on this side of eternity you will understand. . [...]

Path

On the face of it this is a very ordinary picture of a very ordinary scene.

A tree, some shadows, some grass and a path.

Yet for me this short path has almost as much significance as any place or person in my life.

It is, looked at one way, a very expensive piece of path.  At the time of the incident I am writing about I was working in the City of London in finance.  It is never possible to predict how life might have turned out in other scenarios but by an estimate I worked out a few years ago what happened on this path had already  cost me over £500,000.

Looked at another way it was a place that, for all it cost me, money couldn't buy.  For it was on this path - at or near the spot on this photograph - that God spoke to me so clearly that I left my work in finance and used such money as I had already saved to start paying for a Bible College Course to train to work full-time in Christian work.  Many people have longed for such a calling and never heard it.

Why, though, did I add up the financial cost of the path those years ago?  Because I was fed up with news of someone buying a second or third house when we haven't a first?  Or another new car slotting into the car park next to my ageing homage to the Ford dealer's service record?  No.

The reason I did my sums was to check out a belief I hold that God only speaks unequivocally (in clear visions or audibly) when He has something hugely life-changing to say.  For me that path was the place that utterly reshaped my life by cost and call and adding up the cost helped me to see that.  The call was not in the particular of a calling to a town, pastoral ministry, a country or whatever.  Instead it reflected the most fundamental calling of all - just as the Saviour called his first disciples to leave their nets (in my case net profits) and follow wherever He leads.

Want unmistakable guidance?  Pause a moment before you ask for the most expensive encounter you may ever have in this world!

Erin

This evening Erin Pac is racing for her nation in Vancouver. Here's the Winter Olympics, the Christian faith and some advice on dieting for those who need it, all in a few seconds. Cool!